Paul Wolffram

Langoron: the Experience of Music and Dance Among the Lak People of Southern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea Paul Wolffram

This ethnography seeks to describe the indigenous realities, meanings, and perspectives that are central to the music and dance practices of the Lak (Siar) people in Southern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. The music and dance practices of the region are examined in the context of the wider social and cultural setting. Lak performance realities are described as indivisible from kinship structures, ritual proceedings and spirituality. By contextualising performance practices within the frame of the extensive mortuary rites the work shows how music and dance reflects and creates Lak social and cultural realities. Wolffram argues that Lak society is reproduced both literally and symbolically in performance.